Volume 1
Desiderata curiosa: or, a collection of divers ... pieces relating chiefly to matters of English history : consisting of choice tracts, memoirs, letters ... etc / Transcribed ... and illustrated with ample notes ... By Francis Peck.
- Francis Peck
- Date:
- 1779
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Desiderata curiosa: or, a collection of divers ... pieces relating chiefly to matters of English history : consisting of choice tracts, memoirs, letters ... etc / Transcribed ... and illustrated with ample notes ... By Francis Peck. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![rages him. 6. He reads thefophiftry UFiure at fixteen. 7. And the Greek left lire before he was nineteen. 8. JHith great applaufe. 9- But few were then fkilled in Greek. 10. 2 ct he was alfo a general fcholar. 11. A good difput ant. 12. And famous for his learning. 13. After fix years fay he takes his mafters degree, and quits Cambridge. 1. TTIS lordfhip, being, in his infancie, To pregnannt in wit, & fo defirous & apt to Ierne, j~j[ as, in expectation, foretold his greate future fortune ; was vertuouftie brought up, & taught at fchoole, [firft] at Grantham, & [then] at Stamford; [both] in the countie of Lin- colne. 2. And at the age offourteene yeres, in May, 27 H. 8. [1535.] he went to Cambridge; where he was [a] ftudent in S. Johns Colledge. 3. Being fo dilligent & painefull, as he hired the bell-ringer to call him up, at four of the clock, every morninge. 4. With which [early rifing, and late] watchinge, and contynnuall fitting, there fell abun¬ dance of humors into his leggs, then very hardly cured. Which was thought one of the ori¬ ginal caufes of his gowt. 5. One [Nicholas] Medcalf, then mailer of that houfe, feeing his dilligence & towardnes, wold often give him money, to encourage him. 6. [For] he was fo toward, lludious, and fo rarely capable, as he was reader of the fo- phift[r]ie ledture, being but fixteen yeres old. 7. And afterwards he read the Greek ledture there, as a gentleman for his exercife, [purely] upon pleafure, [&] without [any] penfion; before he was nineteen yeres old. 8. Which he performed fo lernedlie, as was beyond expectation of a ftudent of his time, or one of his yeres, or birth. [It] being not ufual to fee a gentleman fo lerned, or fo painefull * phine. MS. [as] to performe that [place.*'] 9. For, at that tyme, it was a rare thinge to have any perfection in the Greek tongue. 10. His dilligent ftudie was [alfo] fuch, as, befides his exquiftte knowledge in the Greeks he was not meanely fene in all other manner of lerninge. 11. Hable [likewife] judicially &lernedly, to maintaine [an] argument with the beft lerned of treeble his (landings, in any manner of lerning or fcience, with extraordinary applaufe of his audiens: no lefie admyreing his greate lerninge for fo little time,, then the excellencie of his f hisfpeech. wit & temper of fpeech.f NS. 12. [So] that he was [then] as famous for a fchollar, in Cambridg ; as [he was] afterwards- [all over Europe] for a grave & greate counfellor. 13. When he had proceeded mailer of art[s,] & contynnued at the univerfity about fix yeres, & that his frendes thought his learning theire fufficient (unles he (hold proceed dodtor, & profefte fome one ftudie or fcience, as, for his greedie defire of lerning, in fhort tyme he- might, but that God, feeing his towardnes, referved him for a. further inftruement to fett- forth his glory) he left the univerfity.. C H A P. IV. 1. Goes thence to Greys Inne, where he ftudies the law. 2. His company much coveted for his wit. 3. He lofes all his many, bedding, & books at play. 4. Threatens revenge. 5. Makes a little hole in the wall between his own & his playfellows chamber, and at midnight, imitating a fpirit’s voice, thro’ a long tronk, 6. rebukes him for that Gj his other faults. 7. Which puts him in a terrible fright. 8. Who the next day begs pardon, Gj reft ores what he had won. 9. Going af¬ terwards to fee his father at court, Mr. Cecil dif put es with two popifh priefts, O Neal’s chap¬ lains, 10. And baffles them. 11. The king hearing of it, 12. Sends for, & difcourfes him. 13. And grants him the reverfon of the office of cuftos brevium in the common pleas. 3. T H E](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3045637x_0001_0038.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
